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Opinion
North Korea’s support for Russia won’t be a game changer in Ukraine
Pyongyang’s support for Russia is part of a public relations campaign for Kim Jong-un, who has his eye on Russian supplies and tech
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Senior Colonel Zhou Bo (ret) is a senior fellow at the Centre for International Security and Strategy at Tsinghua University and a China Forum expert.
It won’t be long before the world finds out if Ukrainian officials were right in saying on Monday that their forces had fired at North Korean soldiers in combat for the first time since they were deployed by Russia to its western Kursk region. Despite denials from Pyongyang, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken had said on October 31 that as many as 8,000 North Korean troops were in Russia and expected to enter combat.
Are North Korean troops a game changer in the grinding Russo-Ukrainian conflict? I think not. Russia has already gained the upper hand on the battlefield against the Ukrainians, who are weary, short of ammunition and outnumbered. So while a dispatch of North Korean troops may be useful, its significance would primarily be political.
Besides, such added strength from Pyongyang would not help Moscow claim a quick victory. It would, however, most certainly make the United States and Europe more determined to provide extra aid to Ukraine, which has been asking for heavy attack weapons to strike deeper into Russia.
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